Ronald Thwaites | What can go so?

Last week’s reports remind us that the nation’s commercial banks are holding hundreds of billions of dollars belonging to the public sector – that is, the property of us the hungry taxpayers: our money, for which they pay interest at a mawga two per cent. These institutions on-lend our money back to us at sometimes double digit coupons.

The profit is theirs, largely shipped abroad or shelled out to a narrow band of staff and shareholders. The burden of crippling interest is spread among all the rest of us.

Why does government, the steward of our taxes, allow this situation? So now this cartel of usurers can scuttle all prospects of growth, especially for small business, by maintaining elevated borrowing rates until they wring tax concessions out of us. There are many indelicate but truthful words to describe behaviour like this.

WHAT CAN REALLY GO SO?

Now the iniquity is multiplied when there is so much money in the hands of the oligarchs, that for the vain sake of suppressing inflation and creating a brassiere for the sagging dollar, we have to borrow back that money almost every week, to do nothing with it except to further pauperise ourselves and enrich the owners by paying them high interest.

Meanwhile, we are encouraged to be ecstatic that the debt to GDP ratio is aligned to the Washington Consensus; cajoled to agree with the doctor’s rosy prescriptions about the health and resilience of the economy; same time as food insecurity haemorrhages the health, happiness and productive capacity of the majority of Jamaicans. Same time too as a recession looms and Trump sneers in our direction.

HEADS YOU WIN, TAILS I LOSE

Who really defends the best interests of the striving, the poor and the pensioners? Those who sit in front bench exclude themselves since they have lined their pockets already. There is not even any shame about bribes and ‘pop-offs’ any more. If the Government changes it will require great political strength to change the corrupt and hurtfully unequal practices which have become habitual.

SHORT SELLING OUR FUTURE

Domestic savers, the life-blood of any good economy, are made poorer by negative savings rates. The Budget is premised on cashing in on discounted future earnings then wasting much of it on non-productive or corruption riddled expenditure. Check some of the road patching being done with wet sludge instead of marl topped by a thin coat of asphalt raked on and barely rolled, if at all.

Last Tuesday this newspaper writing about the urgent need for a Food and Industrial Policy, suggested a “broad-based partnership - a national consensus that involves the political opposition, private sector, labour and civil society. Government has to lead”. This is right. But where are the signs of any willingness for this. Mutual trust is a prerequisite for partnership.

The standoff regarding constitutional change where the governing party stubbornly refuses to declare its position on full sovereignty, as well as the “absolute nonsense” of the doctor’s impasse with the Integrity Commission and the Auditor General, are prime examples of mistrust, wilfully engendered.

We are responsible for aggravating our own problems as we divide up into partisan camps once again. Where is the impetus towards consensus? The mass media, best defender of freedom, feeds tribalism instead of encouraging us to get over it.

SNATCH OPPORTUNITY FROM CRISIS

Did we think that foreign assistance like USAID would be perpetual? As America turns inward, an intelligent set of mendicants like us should have sensed donor fatigue from the moment of Trump’s coronation. What ought we to do now? First of all, stop denying the dead-end of dependency. Marcus Garvey told us to develop backbones instead of wishbones. Deep self-realization and reassessment of goals are inevitable given higher prices due to tariffs passed on.

Add to that the disappointment of reduced immigration prospects and the virtual cessation of foreign grants and concessionary finance. The new Washington has yet to take aim at the multi-lateral financial agencies. I believe it is just a matter of time before US contributions to the IDB, CDB, World Bank and IMF will shrink

Generations ago, a Caribbean economist, Sir Arthur Lewis proposed a new order for development premised on social cohesion and cooperation. He emphasised the value of meritocracy and extolled the obligation of service and the onus on any government to lead and direct policy and resources towards the common good. All these and more are the foundations of a cohesive and prosperous society. Sir Arthur Lewis posited that the good life is not about possessing artefacts but in the construct of just relationships. He taught that while we were not to spurn external assistance, its let should always involve the transfer of knowledge and skill rather than personify a new version of hegemony. We listened and praised but have not followed.

STORY COME TO BUMP NOW THOUGH.

The ‘export or die’ and the ‘self-reliance’ initiatives of Robert Lightbourne and Michael Manley are no longer slogans to be dismissed but economic and social imperatives without which we will remain poor.

How we excite ourselves to wheel and come again to upskill labour productivity and align with a less narrow and selfish capitalist class, ought to be the theme of this election campaign. We should seek clear commitments and practical glimpses towards far-reaching change in the Estimates of Expenditure due this week. Also we expect that the legislative agenda will be outlined in the people’s speech. It had better be persuasive about the reform of governance or the people will scorn the outcomes and continue their cynicism and grab.

Was it Edmund Burke who reminded us that when the law has no heart, it becomes weaponised and inhuman? Can’t we see the tendencies in our midst now? What can really go so?

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com